Bart Got a Room (2008)

I love this movie so much

There are women in the film, but none has anything you could call a personality.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Danny Stein, an earnest young man, is the son of divorced parents. His best friend Camille and Danny are involved in the school television channel where they comment on the upcoming events and school activities. Like all seniors of his age group, Danny has been looking to that special night where he will have a chance to boogie with his classmates and afterward, if he gets lucky, he will score with the girl of his dreams. The problem is Danny does everything wrong and ultimately finds himself dateless for the big night. Why, even the nerdy Bart got a room that was upgraded to a suite!Brian Hecker, the writer of this mildly funny comedy, also directed. He knows these teens well, yet, the final product is not as good as some of its parts. Mr. Hecker main contribution is the atmosphere he creates around the residents of Hollywood, Florida. There are always older folks anywhere the film takes us. Yet, the action is centered among the younger crowd.Stephen Kaplan shows a good affinity for the material. Best of all in the film is William H. Macy, an actor's actor. He plays Ernie Stein, the swinging divorced man looking for love in all the wrong places. His Ernie sports a permanent, although he is balding, yet, he never misses a chance to make a pass at a pretty girl. Cheryl Hines, of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" fame, is seen as Danny's mother, now in a relationship with an older man, who appears will be her salvation. We enjoyed Alia Shawkat, who plays Camille; she's Danny's best friend, but unfortunately, Danny doesn't realize it until it's too late.

When the people behind "Bart Got A Room" call it a film about a guy looking for a date for the prom, they mean just that. There's no emotional subtext whatsoever to this search. Why is it so important to him, and why should we care? Danny is such a blank slate, and the writing doesn't offer many insights into who he is as a person. Compare Danny in your mind with more interesting movie teenagers, like Max from "Rushmore" or Harold from "Harold and Maude," and you'll see what I mean. And the actor playing Danny does little to illuminate that he has any kind of inner life at all.Danny's parents are equally bland and uninteresting. The only truly insightful moment occurs when one of Danny's friends discussing going to the zoo with his mother. (The mother, a divorced woman, hates going to the zoo but is desperately trying to please her new boyfriend.) What is the film even about? Is it about the close friendship between Danny and Camille? But even after the hot girl turns him down, he decides to keep shopping around, rather than turn to Camille, which she herself acknowledges. The film doesn't provide any real scenes to establish the bond they share. (Sorry. Showing old photos of them as children and having narration isn't enough.) I thought the film might be about a boy choosing not to cross over the threshold from childhood to adulthood. Children like to have fun, play with their friends and bond with their parents. Young adults want to carve our their own identities, be independent, distance themselves from their parents and explore their sexuality. So which side does Danny ultimately fall down on – youth or maturity? The film (SPOILERS!) explains at the end that he chose to spend his prom night not with his peers but with his parents and his platonic friend. It further explains that the hotel room, that presumed symbol of sexual maturity, was used instead to play Boggle, a children's game, with his parents and platonic childhood friend.But then, that youth vs. maturity interpretation doesn't really work either. So many different directions the film could have gone in, and yet, in the end, the filmmakers never really chose a path.

If Bart got a hotel room, then Danny should have one too. Danny is your typical unpopular high school senior and he's searching for a prom date. The bar has been set by not-seen-'til-the-end Bart, the class nerd, with the booking of hotel rooms, limousines, etc. Cute and studious Camille (played by Alia Shawkat from Arrested Development, a comedy I adore) has been friends with Danny for a long time and the easy thing for them to do would be to attend prom together, but that doesn't happen of course. I became frustrated with Danny's attempts to get other girls to be his date, but I also related to him – as easy as Camille would be to fall back on, at his age I'd likely want something new (perhaps even sexier) too. This is what teenagers do.William Macy, who plays Danny's father, is one of the few bright spots. Most of the characters are pretty bland, but Macy manages to shine despite the surroundings. I really don't like the haircut he has there, but that's part of the cheap role I guess. His best moments are when he drops everything to help find a date for his son as the prom draws near. He even leaves a sexually-heated date of his own behind! Bart Got A Room is your typical high school movie, but not exactly A-list. It has its moments (my personal favorite takes place in the ice cream shop) but this type of movie has been done before, and better too.

I started off disliking 'Bart Got a Room' due to its painfully obvious set up, clichés and predictable storyline where you knew where this was going from the get-go. For the most part, it unfolded to where you thought so with just a hint of surprises. The idea behind the film, and hence the title, involves high schoolers scrambling to get a date and a "room" for prom night, since *Bart* got a room. Sure, when Bart's revealed in the room, they overshoot his nerd-factor, but the movie's clearly mean-spirited from all angles on a person that's different from the "norm." Again, they did dress up Bart as the stereotypical arrogant "Napoleon Dynamite," but it was a pretty harsh reality the parents were teaching their kids to be judgmental. Some segments were funny, I'll admit, but those few and far between scenes involved Macy (namely the woman running for her life and the older female with a housewarming gift.) And it was touching how down-on-his-own-bad-luck divorced father Macy would give up everything, including a date with poker-great Tilly, to aid his son's quest for a date. 'Bart' was a sweet, innocent movie (other than few scenes knocking down different people) and you could do worse, but there are far better high school comedies. Such as 'Election,' 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off,' and 'Juno.' You have to give kudos to the lead, Kaplan for trying to carry the movie, but not so much for the supporting case, like the overly clichéd "heavy-set" buddy, the pretty blonde cheerleader and the plain-Jane BFF that, shocking, should be his first pick for the prom. We've seen this plot dozens of times over, and one of my favorites was 'Some Kind of Wonderful.' Ironically, director Hecker, did seem to attempt (unsuccessfully) the heart of most Hughes movies.